Half marathon race strategy

The Half is now two weeks away, and it is time to stop worrying about the training that should have been done, and start worrying about how best to survive.

The difficulty is that the aspect of running in which I was making greatest progress was in speed (relatively speaking!!). After stiffness wears off in the first mile or so, I can now stretch both legs forward pretty well, and use my feet to push with, and it's great fun.

But it doesn't last more than about 4M, and it eats up energy and quads and feet, particularly the left leg, just die.

So on the day I mustn't indulge. It will be necessary to put the brakes on, or I will burn out long before the finish. I can, of course, and probably will, do a Penguin, and walk a minute in every five or so, but I think I need to decide on a strategy and practice it in the coming fortnight.

If you really are concentrating on survival then run walk would probably be the best strategy, from the start. What you could try and practise over the next two weeks is sorting out which rythm suits you best - 10min run 1min walk would probably be best if you can manage it - give it a go and see what happens.

I will be running this half by the way - managed 2hrs 5 mins on my last Sunday run.

My tactic is to start at the very back of the pack. This a) stops me from charging off too fast, because everyone else is in front of me, and b) gives me considerable psychological satisfaction from overtaking far more people than overtake me.

At some stage I end up with people going at roughly my speed, and get carried to the finishing line with them.

Do the run/walk thing Stickless. I do this with the intention to run the last 5 (as I know I can run that far without a walk). One day I will find enough energy, and psycological go after the first x miles to manage to run that last 5!

Glad to say my knee has improved, and I am running again.The bad news is that I've only been doing 2-3 miles. I have missed the most crucial stage in my training schedule. I would still like to do the half, and I will be training like mad for the next 10 days or so, but I don't think I will be much under 3 hours.Do you think that this will be OK? I will certainly be run /walking.If I had to drop out, my husband has said he will run instead, so we will definately come along. I really want to do this, but feel a bit daft at being so slow.

Karen-Come along. Obviously if your knee is unhappy, send the husband to run in your stead. There will be others who are slow. I asked the race organisers point blank range was there a time limit (my first question, actually) and they promised me not, said one entrant had estimated 5 hours. In any case, the Cheering Committee (the Davies family, friends, and Sailing Club) will hang around till all CLIC runners are home for sures, and then there is an invitation to you to come along to the Sailing Club for party and to watch the afternoon's sailing races.

If I were to think slow is daft I would never bother even to tie my laces.

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